Dive Brief:

• The regulations enacted after the 2007-08 financial crisis have put the industry in a "great condition" to serve customers amid the coronavirus pandemic, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said.

• The nation's second-largest bank is able to focus on operations rather than risk during the current crisis, unlike in 2008, Moynihan said.

• "What’s different this time is our capital liquidity," Moynihan told CNBC on Friday. "The work that was done in our company and our industry across the last decade, with the regulators and the laws and rules that changed, has led the bank industry to be in great condition to service clients continuously through the last few weeks as this thing has hit the economy."

Dive Insight:

Bank of America is well capitalized and able to focus on the operational challenges that come with having more than 150,000 employees working remotely, Moynihan said.

"It’s much different than walking down 6th Avenue in 2007-08 and being worried about risk," he said, comparing the current crisis to the Great Recession. "Now it’s much more about how do we operationalize and help the economy get back on its feet?"

As the widespread economic disruption brought on by the spread of the virus has led some companies to cut staff and hold off on hiring, Bank of America plans to do the opposite Moynihan said. 

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank hired 2,000 employees this month and promised the bank would not be making layoffs through the end of the year.

"I don’t want teammates to worry about jobs in a time like this," said Moynihan, adding that employees who are unable to work from home will continue to receive paychecks. "We told them all, there is no issue, you’re all going to be working now through year's end. No layoffs, no nothing."

The bank raised wages for its branch employees and increased the overtime pay for its essential processing groups, Moynihan said. The company has also changed its health care benefits to include free coronavirus testing for its employees and unlimited telemedicine. 

On the client side, Moynihan said the bank extended more than $50 billion in loans this month to commercial clients looking for cash needed to survive the crisis.

The bank follows other financial institutions that have pledged to protect jobs despite the current economic uncertainty. Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman said in a memo that the bank would not cut any jobs in 2020, while Citigroup CEO Mike Corbat ordered a suspension of any planned staff cuts, Reuters reported Thursday.

Wells Fargo also said it would hold off on any staff cuts, but said the lift is subject to change. 

"We have paused initiating new displacements," Wells Fargo spokeswoman Beth Richek said Thursday, according to Bloomberg. "We will continue to evaluate during this fluid situation."​